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Officials: Be wary of unlicensed contractors

T.S. Strickland, Staff Writer
8:33 p.m. CDT May 13, 2014

Operation Blessing volunteers David Schwartz, left, and Saberien Ali help out a Lake Charlene homeowner with demolition of her home damaged by late April’s flood. Some fraudulent companies were using Operation Blessing’s name to get business.(Photo: Photos by Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com)

As area residents start to rebuild in the wake of this month’s severe weather, local building officials are warning them to prepare for a flood of a different kind. Officials have already begun to receive complaints from local residents of unlicensed contractors peddling their trades, and they only expect the trend to increase in the coming weeks and months.

The risks, they say, are very real. These opportunistic predators often do shoddy repairs, fail to obtain needed permits and, in some cases, snatch homeowners money without finishing the job.

Buddy Gomez knows the type well. As investigative supervisor for the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, he and his team of three agents are responsible for policing the construction industry in the seven westernmost counties of Florida.

“A lot of these people are out to make a quick dollar,” Gomez said Monday, “and sometimes they prey on those who are down and out.”

And shoddy work is not the only risk unwary homeowners face.

Donald Mayo, director of building inspections for Escambia County, said unlicensed contractors often lack workers’ compensation insurance — leaving the homeowner on the hook if a worker is killed or injured on the job. Beyond this, according to state regulators, unlicensed contractors are more likely to have a criminal background, and their work is probably not covered under homeowners’ insurance policies.

The floodgates haven’t opened just yet. As of this week, Gomez said his office had not received any complaints of unlicensed contractors. Randy Jones, the code compliance supervisor for Santa Rosa County, also had yet to receive any formal complaints.

“We’re hearing things,” Gomez said, “but our investigators are picking them up in ones and twos as they are out in the field. Most of the complaints we’re receiving right now are about people riding through neighborhoods looking for work.”

Local officials have already begun to receive complaints in Escambia County, however. Chief Building Inspector Donald Mayo said Monday that his department had received 15 since the storm began. All three men said they expected to receive many more complaints as restoration work progressed.

“Right now, it’s a little early,” Mayo said. “Once the federal emergency declaration is made and the insurance companies begin processing all their claims, it’ll break loose. I do expect complaints to increase.”

One nonprofit helping area residents already knows what it feels like to be victimized.

Operation Blessing, the humanitarian arm of the Christian Broadcasting Network, was one of the first organizations to hit the ground in the days following this month’s torrential rain. Since the day after the flooding began, on April 29, volunteers from the organization have been going door to door in the worst affected neighborhoods, offering assistance to residents as they clean up their flooded homes.

However, not all the volunteers have been of the good-hearted variety. The Pensacola Police Department reported this week that someone claiming to represent the organization had contacted a local resident, offering to remodel his home if he would sign a contract. The man refused and instead contacted the police.

Raymond McGregor, deployment manager for the group, said Monday that his organization never asks the people they help to sign a contract or pay for their services.

“We’re here to bless people,” he said. “We’re here to serve people.”

McGregor was standing outside the home of one those people Monday afternoon. Doris Munoz, an 83-year-old retired federal executive, lives along in her Lake Charlene home. On April 29, she was forced by rising floodwaters to flee. She didn’t make it far — Her car stalled out about a block away from her house, where she was forced to wait two hours for help to arrive.

When she returned home after the flood receded, she found that the flood had ruined most of her furniture, soaked her carpet and destroyed about two feet of sheetrock. By Monday, however, teams of volunteers from Operation Blessing had loaded what remained of her belongings onto a moving truck, stripped out the carpet and were busily removing the ruined drywall.

Munoz, who did not have flood insurance, said the organization had been a godsend.

“I don’t know what I would have done without them,” she said. “I can’t say enough.”

The story could have been much different if it had been the scammer, rather than the real deal, who came knocking at Munoz’s door. That’s why state and local officials are being proactive.

Mayo said county workers were posting signs in the worst affected areas, warning people to be wary of unlicensed contractors. State regulators also plan to ramp up their efforts in the coming weeks. Tajiana Ancora-Brown, director of communications for the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, said her investigators had been working with local building officials since the flood to conduct damage assessments and identify the areas affected by the storm.

“This means that when the repair part of the process begins, the department has a good idea of the areas where to specifically target enforcement efforts,” she said. Gomez said he anticipated that his team would begin conducting sweeps of the affected neighborhoods soon, to crack down on unlicensed contractors.

“People have already been devastated by severe weather,” Ancora-Brown said. “They last thing they need is to be victimized again.”

Red flags

Your contractor might be unlicensed or uninsured if ...

• They do not include their state license number or list only their name and cell phone number in advertisements or postings. Licensed contractors are required to list their license number in all advertisements.

• They claim to be licensed and insured but can only produce an occupational license or corporate filing. Neither prove a contractor is qualified to perform work.

• They want all or most of the money up front or demand cash payment.

• They show up in unmarked vehicles to do work and often have out-of-state tags.

• They refuse to put a work agreement into writing.

• They try to convince you that a permit is unnecessary or that it’s cheaper if you obtain it yourself.